


Hit The Deck

by nexparker



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Casey Tries His Best, Fainting, It's Nico's Turn To Get Hurt, Link is a Good Bro, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21729454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nexparker/pseuds/nexparker
Summary: Someone get Nico a juice box. Also, a brown paper bag for Levi to breathe into would be good too.Warnings: Medical Inaccuracies, Fainting, Swearing, and a Lot Of Fluff™️
Relationships: Nico Kim/Levi Schmitt
Comments: 3
Kudos: 174





	Hit The Deck

**Author's Note:**

> hi i wrote this because we have been severely deprived of schmico this season and grey’s writers love queerbaiting so I doubt we’re gonna get much more oh and also because the only thing i know how to write is h/c :) btw this is un-betaed

“Kim? Doctor Kim?” a voice echoed in Nico’s ears.

“Nico?” A hand waved across his blurry vision.

The fellow managed to pull himself from his stupor to see Link waving at him from across the operating table.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry. Just zoned out for a second.”

Long shift?” Link asked.

“Yeah, I think I just hit hour 38. Why do you ask?”

“Because I’ve asked you if you wanted to do the anterior rotation stabilization about 6 times now.” Link explained. “I was going to let you do it, but I think your head might be a little too high in the clouds right now”, the attending teased.

“No, wait. I can do it—can I try it?” Nico asked, stumbling over his words a little. The fellow mentally kicked himself for spacing out.

“Are you sure you’re awake enough for it?”

“I’m sure. Can I do it?” Nico asked again.

Link paused for a moment, looking Nico up and down before agreeing.

“Don’t screw it up,” the attending joked, passing the drill to Nico.

Nico shot Link a grateful look before accepting the surgical tool.

* * *

4 hours later, Nico tried not to sway on his feet as he shoved the used surgical gown and gloves into the disposal bin before entering the scrub room to watch his hands.

He was soon joined by his fellow orthopedic surgeon, who seemed to not notice the fact that the room appeared to be spinning. Moving slowly as to not push his luck, Nico stuck his hands under the hot water, trying to focus on his friend as well as he could.

“Good job in there,” Link praised him. “There’s no way you won’t get an attending position at that hospital in San Francisco if you keep operating like that.”

“Mmm. Thanks.” Nico hummed, not feeling capable of giving a response much better than that.

Link finished washing his hands off before Nico did, quickly grabbing a towel to dry them before giving the fellow a clap on the back.

“Now, go get some sleep.” He said, before walking out and leaving Nico alone.

Nico looked back down at his hands under the hot water. His vision faded in and out of focus, unsteady on his feet. Eventually finishing, Nico reached for a towel as Link had done moments ago, but his hands were shaking so badly he almost dropped it. 

‘God. I need some sleep.’ he thought, pushing a hand through his hair. The last thing he wanted was to collapse from exhaustion on a trauma call.

Pushing the door of the scrub room open, Nico felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and unlocked it to see a text from Levi.

‘hey don’t forget we changed the meeting place to the main lobby- our reservation is at 8:45 don’t be late :) <3’

‘Aw, shit.’ Nico groaned. He completely forgot it was date night. As much as he needed to sleep, he would feel bad about canceling on his boyfriend again, especially when he had been so patient. He would just have to power through— what’s the worst that could happen?

* * *

After nearly falling over in the fellow’s lounge shower, Nico stumbled to get dressed. He pulled his pants on while grumbling that the hot shower had done pretty much nothing to knock him out of this stupor. It took him a couple of minutes to get dressed, hands shaking again while he tied his shoes.

‘Just a couple more hours. Then you can sleep and all of _this_ will go away.’ Nico told himself.

It wasn’t like he didn’t want to see Levi— in fact, he had been looking forward to this date all week. Unfortunately, the feeling of having cotton stuffed in his head made it easy to forget while he was in surgery. Nico tried to shake his head to clear up some of the dizziness he was experiencing, but that didn’t seem to do much good.

Sighing, the fellow pushed himself off of the bench in the empty lounge. Almost immediately, he fell right back down.

“Whoa…” He muttered, slightly disoriented.

‘This can’t be good.’ Nico thought, trying to gather himself enough for another attempt. ‘As long as I can make it through the date without worrying Levi, It’ll be fine.’ Nico hated worrying his already anxious boyfriend. 

The fellow saw the room spin around him as he stood up again, making slow but sure steps to where he thought the door was (it was getting harder and harder to tell). Eventually, Nico’s hand grasped the cool metal of the door handle and he opened it slowly.

The bright lights of the hallway were a stark difference from the softer lights of the fellow lounge; this alone nearly pushed him to the ground. Another couple of steps and Nico noticed the black spots clouding his vision. Just a few more, and he was on the ground, out like a light.

* * *

It didn’t take long for someone to notice the collapsed ortho fellow. 

“Doctor Kim? Can you hear me?” A nurse asked, checking Nico’s pulse as a gurney was raced down the hallway towards the scene. Nico felt more and more human presences surrounding him.

Groaning and opening his eyes a little, Nico saw a bright light coming from a penlight above him. The penlight belonged to none other than Casey Parker. 

“Doctor Kim? Are you alright?” Casey asked, crouched down next to the nurse.

“W-what’s going on?” Nico asked, words slurring slightly.

“You fainted,” Casey answered flatly. “We’re going to get you to a room so we can figure out what’s going on.” 

Nico, not exactly in a position to object, groaned again but nodded slightly.

‘Great. Now Levi’s definitely gonna know. Way to go, Kim.’ Nico thought.

It took a few orderlies to help Nico get to a sitting and then eventually a very unstable standing position to get him on the gurney. The nurse from before and Casey worked to get the gurney to a vacant patient room; Once there, Casey helped the fellow get on to the bed before starting to examine him.

“Have you been sleeping enough?” Casey asked, setting up the machine to get Nico’s vitals.

“Do any of us sleep enough?” Nico grumbled, his face buried in his right elbow as he laid on his back, offering his left arm to the resident for his vitals. Casey noticed how Nico’s hands shook uncharacteristically as he placed the pulse oximeter on his pointer finger. The bright lights made Nico’s head throb, his headache seemingly getting worse with every passing minute.

Casey stayed silent as the monitors collected the data. Nico was grateful for this.

“Your vitals are a mess,” Casey noted, pulling the cuff off of Nico’s arm. “I’m going to get a CBC.”

“Fantastic,” Nico grunted, moving his right arm down by his side.

Before Casey could continue with any more questions, the door to the patient room flung open, revealing a very distressed Levi, who nearly fell open running into the room.

“Oh my GOD. What did you do?!” Levi asked Nico, eyes wide at the sight of his boyfriend on the bed, drenched in sweat and shaking. He quickly moved to the side of the bed, running a hand through his hair to sweep it out of his face.

Nico sighed quietly at the sight of his discombobulated boyfriend, both relieved and frustrated that he was here. This is exactly what Nico DIDN’T want to happen. Now Levi was all worked up about him and Nico was currently too focused on how nauseous he had become in the last couple of minutes to try to reassure him.

“I was in the process of figuring that out. I was just about to get some blood when-” Levi cut Casey off. 

“Don’t worry about it. I got it.” Levi huffed, dismissing his friend in an instant. Nico watched as his boyfriend wordlessly grabbed the necessary supplies before putting on gloves and tying a tourniquet around his right bicep. 

“Babe… I’m okay…” Nico attempted to comfort his boyfriend after swallowing hard.

“You, Nico Kim, just FAINTED in a HALLWAY. By my standards, and what should be your standards, that is NOT OKAY.” Levi nearly scolded, effectively shutting Nico up.

Nico tried not to move as Levi worked, but the feeling of the butterfly needle entering his skin did not help his nausea. Luckily, the blood was collected without incident and Levi gave it to a nurse to be priority tested.

* * *

A short amount of time and an uncomfortable silence later, the results were delivered to the patient room where Nico was. A nurse had just put in an IV for fluids and an antinausea medication and the fellow slowly felt the room stop spinning. The tablet that rested on the end table of the bed chimed quietly, informing the doctors that Nico’s CBC results were ready. 

Levi snatched the tablet off the table in an instant, quickly unlocking it with his PIN. Nico watched drowsily as his worried boyfriend skimmed over the results, waiting for the reason behind this whole debacle.

Levi, however, was surprisingly calm, yet tense.

“Nico,” Levi said, setting the fellow on edge slightly.

“Hmm?”

“When was the last time you had something to eat?” Levi asked cooly.

This got Nico thinking. When _was_ the last time he ate? Lunch? No, he got asked for a consult and forgot to come back to it. Breakfast that morning, maybe? Not really, unless you could a cup of black coffee and a stick of gum afterward breakfast.

“Uhh… Last night?” he wondered aloud. 

Levi frowned. 

“You’re telling me the last thing you had to eat was a sandwich out of a vending machine at 11 PM last night?”

“I… I think so.”

Levi took a deep breath through his nose before walking out of the room calmly. He returned a minute later with a juice pouch and a granola bar, placing them on top of Nico’s stomach.

“Eat.” 

The fellow looked up at him curiously, brain still somewhat muddled.

“Hypoglycemia. Your blood sugar tanked, and then you took a nosedive.” Levi explained, tension seemingly leeching out of him by the second. “Now, eat.”

Nico fiddled with the wrapper of the granola bar momentarily before Levi stepped in and opened it up for him along with the juice pouch. Nico took the snacks from his boyfriend gratefully. Levi proceeded to sit on the edge of the bed, watching Nico as he ate.

Nico took this time to make some observations about Levi; His shoulders seemed to relax as time went on. He wore his glasses, something that was less common now that he had gotten used to the contacts he had started wearing when they first started dating (Nico secretly loved his glasses, but Levi was so happy when he got used to the contacts, so he never mentioned it). Levi also wasn’t in his scrubs but in his clothes that were obviously meant for their date.

‘Oh, shit. The date.’ Nico thought, immediately flooded with guilt.

“I’m sorry.” Nico said suddenly.

‘Hmm?” Levi hummed.

“Our date. I completely ruined it.”

Levi paused for a moment as if pondering this idea. He then began to laugh. Nico stared, bewildered that his boyfriend could be laughing at a time like this. Sensing his confusion, Levi replied.

“You didn’t ruin it.”

“But you were so excited for it,” Nico pouted slightly. “You were really pumped about that lasagna, and now all we have is a stupid granola bar and a juice pouch.”

“We can go another time, babe. For now, I have another idea.” 

* * *

“This was the best idea you’ve ever had.” Nico says, taking a bite out of a slice of pizza. 

“I know,” Levi answered, changing the channel on the tiny TV in the corner from his place on the bed next to Nico. They had some orderlies push the beds together, creating a massive bed from the two. A pizza laid between them, just within arm’s reach. 

The volume of the TV was set on low, the lights off as the two enjoyed each other’s company. After finishing the granola bar and juice pouch Levi had brought him originally,   
Nico felt the need to consume every food item to exist, ever- hence the pizza.

‘This is so good. you’re a genius.” Nico praised again, to which Levi chuckled.

They were both quiet for a moment. Suddenly, Levi sat up, looking back at his boyfriend that rested on top of a mountain of shitty hospital pillows. Their eyes met.

“Don’t scare me like that again, okay? This better be the worst thing you enter this hospital for.”

Nico smiles at this. “I won’t. But you might want to carry around a paper bag to breathe into, y’know, just in case.” He teased.

“Shut up.” Levi smacked Nico’s arm, finding it impossible to hide his laughter before lying back down. 

* * *

Later that night, Casey found them asleep in each other’s arms. 

**Author's Note:**

> hiya. this schmico drought is killing me and i don’t know how to cope so yeah. tbfh idk what to do with boyh so if you have ideas message me ig?
> 
> hope this wasn’t too dumb and cheesy
> 
> grace


End file.
